Some months ago I first heard of Viber, a much hyped iPhone VoIP App offering free calls from iPhone to iPhone. Not really a new thing if you ask me; Skype is the most known VoIP App and has been around for ages, as have many, many other VoIP/SIP clients…

So, why did Viber get so hyped?

My guess? The smooth integration with your addressbook, having the Viber logo next to contacts that have the App too does make it easy to use Viber as your Dialer.

But…

Viber is strongly promoting the fact that it is free and will ‘always’ remain free and also, the App doesn’t have any ads, no in-App purchases, you can’t buy credits to call non-Viber users (as Skype offers)…I really don’t believe in a free lunch (at least, in iPhone App-land), so what is the catch?

Today I got the first indication:

Read their privacy policy and learn: ‘Viber also maintains call and connection logs to the system. These logs contain your internal Viber identification which is a combination of your account identification (i.e., your phone number) and Apple Unique Device Identification (“UDID”) or Android Device ID. All call and connection logs are maintained indefinitely.’

They furthermore don’t guarantee what will happen to these logs if they merge or are acquired; while this can be seen as obvious it also shows what their asset really is: YOUR call logs which contain your telephone number, location data (IP-address) and the phonenumbers from your addressbook…this creates huge privacy and security concerns!! And without a strategy showing how they intend to make money with this App (again; no ads, no in-App purchases, no credit-plan, etc.), things get fishy…the Telecompaper had an interesting article some weeks ago summing things up and making the Viber-Skype comparison.

My advice; *de-install* it and use a more transparent alternative such as Skype or others.

Oh, one last thing; even when you delete the App from your iPhone, your account *including* your phone number will be kept indefinitely. If you want to delete your account completely you have to go through a cumbersome process of contacting Viber via “Viber Support” (available at Viber.com) and request that your account is deleted…sorry, no straightforward process for this exists…typical, eh?

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Hi,
This is a representative of Viber Media.
I have read your blog thoroughly, and would like to address your concerns:

1. first – naturally, we collect users’ information not because we are curious of its content, but in order for functional reasons, and for us to enable the service we, as a company, promise to provide. This is not different from any other major social network/communication service provider in our world nowadays.

2. it is important to give accurate information your readers – on one hand, you say that we collect the call logs and will allegedly give it out to companies we merge with, and on the other hand, you mentioned yourself that as a user, you can DELETE those logs by uninstalling Viber.

so, in case of a merger (which we don’t even planned at all), of which we will of course inform our users, a user would be able to DECIDE whether or not he will leave Viber, or stay under a possible new ownership.

3. our Privacy Policy is very transparent and accessible to anyone. furthermore, we have already modified it once after we realized some of its clauses were confusing or not agreed upon by a large portion of our users. we will soon make another change to our Policy addressing the merger option (I emphasize again – that option is NOT on the table right now) in order to calm our users down and allow them to enjoy Viber without any concern.

4. Regarding Viber’s business plan:
I wonder, is Viber different from other free-service companies and products out there? did other major VoIP services (I’m sure you have some in mind) immediately announce their business plan upon their arrival in the market?
Even though the answer to these questions are “no”, we definitely care enough about our users’ concerns, so here is the answer to your question:

For now, Viber’s focus is on adding platforms, adding features (such as text messages) and improving overall system performance. At the same time, we are working on additional future premium services that will generate revenues. The basic Viber service – Viber to Viber phone calls, and soon text messages, will always be free.

To conclude – we provide a free, reliable service to users all around the world. we actually encourage users (in AppStore, for example) to visit our homepage and read our Privacy Policy, and be able to CHOOSE. millions chose to install, and I believe they have done that with all the consciousness needed.

I would be happy to answer any other question you, or your readers, might have.

The setup of Viber makes me nervous. The answer by Viber to Raymond is not an answer at all, and it has not given me or the Viber users any piece of mind. Furthermore and most importantly, no method for deleting the account is made clear by Viber in their response. So Viber Team, how do I delete my account and be sure that none of my personal data is left on your servers? And will Viber give me their guarantee that the data files have been purged?

Thank you very much for commenting to my blogpost, I really appreciate this. The things you write do increase my confidence in the Viber App, although my concerns are still there, my feedback on the points you address:

1. I totally understand and agree with the concept as such, the problem I have with Viber’s implementation, is that you use my telephone number as ID, instead of a user chosen ID or email-address which is standard for any other major social network/communication service provider. My telephone number is an asset that I do not want to share easily, which is also the case for you storing the phonenumbers of all my contacts, without their approval!

2. Sorry, I have *not* said that those logs are deleted by uninstalling Viber…I wrote that: “…even when you delete the App from your iPhone, your account *including* your phone number will be kept indefinitely. If you want to delete your account completely you have to go through a cumbersome process of contacting Viber via “Viber Support” (available at Viber.com) and request that your account is deleted…sorry, no straightforward process for this exists…”.
Also, the privacy policy is unclear what happens to all call and connection logs when the account is deleted (when subsequently the phone number and UDID should be deleted): after all, the privacy policy *does* mention: “All call and connection logs are maintained indefinitely”.

And of course a user would be able to decide whether or not he will leave Viber in case of merger, but again; the process of getting the phone number and UDID deleted is not easy/straightforward and the privacy policy is unclear what happens to all data collected.

3. I do value and appreciate the openness in this, thanks! As mentioned, there are points that need further clarification, although my main concern remains with the usage of my phone number *and* the fact that the phonenumbers of all my contacts are stored without their approval/consent.

4. No, Viber is not different in not announcing the business plan upon arrival in the market, yet Viber is somewhat different to other free-service companies out there, as the storage of call logs, connection logs and phonenumbers of my contacts is a valuable asset for a free-service company without other means of income…that worries me.

Finally, you mention that you actually encourage users (in AppStore, for example) to visit our homepage and read your Privacy Policy, and be able to CHOOSE…
This encouragement is obviously a great thing, but even while millions might chose to install, you cannot be serious to believe that even a small portion of those millions have actually read the Privacy Policy…sorry to say, but I truly believe that if people would really understand that their call behavior, actual phonenumber *and* the phonenumbers of all their contacts are stored (indefinitely) by Viber, they would think twice before installing the App.

I am a viber user and i realy dont mind having my id store in the db of viber media .
Viber is easy to use and free and that is the most important thing . I would like to ear more about you bussines plan, iam student ingeneer in electronic and computering device devellopement, viber in my opinion is the most inovative app ive seen during the last years, and from far the most usefull.

I just found out about viber today. if this is considered a “phone” application, remember, the information that you are talking about, who called whom, from what time to what time, are all information they have to retain, by law (thank you, Patriot Act).

Additionally, your everyday “large” established players do the following:

I signed up for Viber in the last couple months. I keep getting sms’ about free calls, and when I did a web search on the number it mentioned a local site called “myfreecalls.co.za”. Interestingly, the Viber Twitter account follows the MyFreeCalls one. I have a sneaky suspicion that Viber thinks it’s ok to spam-SMS me whenever it feels like.

Hi, I just googled ‘viber security issues’ due to an alarming incident last night… my phone rang via Viber from a ‘Sophia’ (I don’t know any one by that name) and her picture came up also. I didn’t pick up the first time but when ‘she’ rang back at 12:30am I thought I had best put a stop to it.

The phone call was a recorded message, there was no one on the other end. I dont remember what the message was however I imagine the idea was to keep me on the line or simply make me pick it up… WHY DID THAT HAPPEN??? This feels like something I should worry about… clearly this is a security breach. Does the caller now have access to data in my phone? I dont know enough to understand what is possible but I do know my phone is essentially a computer and can be hacked like any other. I deleted Viber immediately but now I am worried someone in Africa has details about me and shortly my bank accounts will be empty. I had no way of tracking Sophia, there was no ‘missed call’ from ‘her’ the first time and no way to ascertain who or where the call came from.

If I had any advice to give, I would say DELETE VIBER AND STICK WITH SKYPE!!!! I am genuinely worried about those people want and this clear violation…

The post by Jay is obviously a Skype state of fear plant. If these Viber logs don’t entail the details of the actual message I will continue to use the app for things I don’t want the others to know. Seriously, do u think Skype is secure? Lol

my god you americans or so sinical stop thinking everyone is trying to spy on you… ive used viber for about 12 months and i love it… living overseas and being able to talk to my mum, dad and others is awesome….

I’ve just received a SMS message from a friend of mine saying “Hey, you should get Viber …”. I thought I’d google Viber to confirm that she has a virustrojan on her iPhone. You can understand how pissed off I am to see that a) this is a ‘legitimate’ app and b) from what I have read that Viber reads the ‘infected’ phone’s contacts and now has my phone number stored without my consent and is now sending me SPAM! What a bunch of c*nts!

I had the same incident with getting a phone call from “Sophia.” They’ve tried to make it look legit because it comes up with a picture, but I don’t know anyone by that name so did not pick it up.

I know this results from Viber because I received the first within minutes of signing up and providing my phone number and the screen that comes up with the call

What annoys me as well is that I received two of these calls at 1:30am and 2:25 am in the same night. Now I can’t/won’t keep my phone next to my bed at night in case my phone will go off in the middle of the night.

I “deleted” my account immediately, but still got a call yesterday, a day after deletion. At least it was during the day. I have gotten a total of 5 calls from “Sophia.”

If you don’t feel a little nervous using Viber then i dont think you realise how valuable peoples networks and information can be. The message here by “Jay” isn’t a plant as i’ve had Viber calls from people i don’t know as well. i assumed it was just system glitches and kept using the app. Though i run 2 phones a number for my RL and another one for online. there’s no way i’d be using viber if i only had one number. Do people really think this data is held in ultra secure systems that can’t be accessed. With no income to speak of i can guarantee they run the least security possible. It’s only when these systems get compromised every screams about the lack of security and how obvious it was.

guys, my simple question to the viber team is that, can my phone calls be tapped or not??? because the info i discuss on viber is crucial for me and my company that it does not get into the wrong hands. please reply soon.

i j ust bought a samsung tab & isntalled viber and use it by calling a friend. After brwsing a while of my memory sdcard folders i found other people’s photos inside viber’s folder under media>user photos. can anyone explain how that happened, and will my photos also transmitted other viber users? or is this because of AllSharing setting? TQ

oh, sorry, i misunderstood your question. theoretically your calls are stored on the viber’s server, when you initiate the calls through the server. in this case it is stored temporary, while it can’t be delivered to the party. but this is the theory.

This message is for everyone who is paranoid. WAKE UP! It’s 2013. Viber should be the least of your worries.

I recently downloaded Viber and I love it because I get to talk to all my family members that are in other countries FOR FREE! I dont care if they have my number or access my contacts. Why don’t I care? Reason being is that all my information is already out there anyways.

THERE IS NO WAY TO PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION ANYMORE! THERE IS NO MORE PRIVACY ON PLANET EARTH ANYMORE!
If you are concerned about viber storing your information even after you delete/un-install viber then you should also be worried about:

I unistalled viber mistakenly without deactivating account, now i reinstalled viber and when i enter my number it says “cannot be associated” how can i now deactivate my account???? there is no “more tab” button i can see on the interface.. plzzz reply

Please try removing Viber, wait 24 hours, reinstall and try again (make sure you try both the SMS and the automated call options).

In addition, you may try to register to Viber with a different number (for example – your home landline number, a friend’s number, etc.), in order to determine whether the problem is specific with your number, or a general one.

Hi,
This is a very rare bug that affected a few users, but it is not a threat to your privacy – you can rest assured.

We are working around the clock to resolve this. Meanwhile, we recommend that you deactivate Viber, and register again (note that this will unfortunately result in the deletion of your message history, but it can be exported beforehand).

If the problem persists after that, please do let me know and I’ll assist.

Hi i have a strange problem which made me deactivate Viber directly.
Yesterday evening i was talking to a friend trough chat on Viber.
Suddenly she gets a mess in other language actually my home language saying “i am on my way” in swedish. No threatful mess etc but still it did not come from me. She reacted and asked me what i wrote and i did not get the picture untill i saw the chat logg that this mess was send from “me” or at least my account?? Marking the position in the mess it was in another location in Europe and i mean the person sending it was obviously not sending this information to my friend. What has happened? Is someone usin my account/number thought it only could be on one device. Is someone having similar nummber and account as me and its a bug in some way. I have asked support trough ticket as they always refers to but no answers. I take this very seriously how this mess could be send to my friend like it come from me??
Any one that has any clues about this thing? It dosent seem to help to ask viber support. But please just want to alert you all and if someone knows more about this. i am quite worried now that even though i deactivated the account that someone is playing or at least can do so around with my number. Its a prepaid card so thay can emtpy it but not more thanks god.
I use a sony experia android phone. viber version 3.1.1.

We would appreciate if you could take a minute and report the details to our support team using this direct link: http://bit.ly/ukGVJ0 (when you submit the ticket, please make sure to specify the link to this page in the approapriate place in the form, for monitoring purposes). With this information, our development team will hopefully be able to find the source of the problem, and ultimately resolve it.

Hello everybody! I apologize for my English , I use Google translator )))
I’m from Russia , about Viber learned recently been using it six months . I would like to thank the developers of this wonderful program , thanks to her, I can save up to 30 % of the money on the phone, as well as Viber is very convenient and easy !
In my opinion , you Americans too much care about your privacy , we have a Russian authorities bugged every fifth cell phone, and mobile operators are selling daily phone numbers of individuals to various firms who then send out spam sms ! And we live and do not complain ! And you inflate the scandal of the fact that your numbers are stored in a database Viber , in my opinion is stupid!